This book collects
essays on how to discuss faith and values with children. One of the essays is
about Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, and his discussions with Ruby Bridges.
For those of you that don’t know, Ruby Bridges inspired the Norman Rockwell
painting of the girl being accompanied by US Marshalls on her way to school.
She was the first African American to attend a previously segregated school,
and Coles figured she’d have anxiety and depression, or what today we’d call
PTSD. On the contrary, she was doing fine. When asked what she thought of the
people yelling insults, she said “I pray for them every day.”
There’s also an
essay here by Kevin Lawson on how children were taught faith in the Middle
Ages. Keep in mind that in contrast to Ruby Bridges, European Christians weren’t
looking to Jesus as a beacon in their struggle for liberty and equality. The
church was under the same feudal system as the nobility, and the peasants
couldn’t expect to find autonomy or fortune. Furthermore it was in an era
before cheap printing, and inspiring news didn’t travel fast. It was in this
era that priests relied on illustrations to teach children. We all know how
kids prefer picture books to “grown up” books, and why wouldn’t they, seeing as
they understand pictures better than words. Religious artwork and even plays
became essential at this time. While there is agreement that religious
instruction would’ve changed for Protestants after the Reformation, it would’ve
been more important than ever to beef up religious instruction. With the
rivalry going on between the Catholic and Lutheran churches, there was most
likely a rivalry going on.
In an earlier book
I reviewed, titled Moral Issues and Christian Responses, there was a part on
the Nickel Mines massacre, where a gunman killed Amish school children. The
Amish families weren’t driven to depression by the killings, because as part of
their religious instruction they were taught to accept what happens to them.
They even made condolence calls on the family of the murderer who’d been killed
by the police. But when asked if they’d want him to go free had he lived, they
said no. A person who is a danger to the community has to be confined so that
he doesn’t continue killing.
With the many mass
killings we’ve had in the last several years, it remains to be seen if we’ll
develop a method for recovery.
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